The summer drought has
dried up Fermilab's A.E. Sea (Click on image for larger
version.)

Most people familiar with the
engineering of the Tevatron know that water cools the accelerator,
but few know just how much. According to Steve Krstulovich, an
engineer with FESS services, more than 40 million gallons evaporate
from the Main Injector and Tevatron's ring waterways and other
cooling ponds each month due to the accelerator's heat and the sun's
rays. That's the equivalent of 60 Olympic-sized swimming pools!

The ring ponds are a vital part of the Main Injector and
Tevatron, dispersing heat into the air as water evaporates. But if
these ponds become shallow their temperature creeps upward,
stressing equipment and causing the accelerator to run less
efficiently. "In turn, the accelerator requires more power and gives
off more heat, increasing evaporation and making the water level
drop even further," said Krstulovich.

Keeping enough water in the Main Injector/Tevatron ring waterways
has been especially difficult this summer because of the drought
conditions. Precipitation is the main water source for the ponds,
and with normal rainfall, FESS can usually keep the waterways full
with some additional water pumped from the nearby Fox River and from
NuMI's underground experimental hall sump discharge. But because
this year's drought has been so extreme, Fermilab hasn't been able
to recharge its ponds with rain, and pumping from the Fox has been
severely limited by low river flow. This has left the site with a
water deficit it must manage through spring of 2006. Read
More

Now that the two-week Snowmass Workshop
is over, the organizers, Ed Berger, of Argonne National Laboratory,
Uriel Nauenberg, of the University of Colorado at Boulder, Jim Brau
of the University of Oregon, and Mark Oreglia of the University of
Chicago, are breathing a sigh of relief. From getting funding to
reserving conference rooms to writing letters of invitation for
foreign participants in the middle of the night, the organizers made
every effort for a successful outcome. "The workshop was
scientifically very productive," said Berger. "The attitudes of all
the participants and conveners were great. Everyone came committed
to getting the job done." Read
More

From
Interactions.org, August 29, 2005Finding a Way
to Test for Dark Energy

Theorists show how satellite searches can distinguish among dark
energy scenarios.

What is the mysterious dark energy that's causing the expansion
of the universe to accelerate? Is it some form of Einstein's famous
cosmological constant, or is it an exotic repulsive force, dubbed
"quintessence," that could make up as much as three-quarters of the
cosmos? Scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
(Berkeley Lab) and Dartmouth College believe there is a way to find
out. Read
More

Après
Snowmass

Pier Oddone

At the
end of the Snowmass proceedings on the International Linear
Collider, we all shared the sense that the workshop had produced
results beyond expectations. Many of the working groups reached
consensus on their recommendations for the ILC
baseline configuration.

Because we will be building this machine several years after the
initial baseline configuration, a mechanism to allow evolution is
absolutely necessary if the machine is to be "modern" when we
finally build it. So in areas where we expect improvements, the
working groups made recommendations for alternate configurations.
While these alternate choices promise either technical improvements
or cost savings, they also require additional R&D before they
can replace the choices made for the initial baseline configuration.

By the end of this year the Global Design Effort under Barry
Barish's direction will place the baseline design under a "change
control" mechanism to allow for disciplined changes of the design.
This will be a novel application of "change control" since it will
be done so early in the design phase of the project.

Of course much work remains. Recommendations for some of the very
difficult technical choices, such as one tunnel vs. two tunnels, or
the choice of the damping ring design, remain to be made even after
a huge amount of discussion. But recommendations on many other
difficult choices, including the accelerating gradient, the
luminosity parameters, the method for producing positrons and the IR
configuration, have now been given to the GDE.

The achievements at Snowmass bode well both for reaching an
agreement on the baseline configuration by the end of this year and
a reference design and cost estimate by the end of 2006. The 80
participants from Fermilab made significant contributions to the
results of the workshop across a broad front that included
accelerators, detectors, theory, communication and public outreach.
I offer my personal thanks to each of them for their efforts.

There was a mistake in yesterday's
story about West Nile virus. It states: "Recently, we recorded the
first instance of a mosquito testing positive for the virus at
Fermilab." Actually, we had 2 positive test results from mosquito
samples last year.

Open Enrollment for theLife
Insurance PlanThe open enrollment period ends on Monday,
September 12, 2005. The open enrollment form must be in by 5:00 P.M
on September 12, 2005. You can access further
information on the Web.

Power OutageThe power will be cut to Labs A, B, C, D,
E, and F from 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM on Saturday, September 3, 2005.

Fermilab Health FairThe Fermilab Health Fair, complete
with demonstrations, screenings, and health information, will take
place on Thursday, September 8 from 11:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m.

Scottish Country DancingScottish Country Dancing will
meet Tuesday, Aug. 30, in Ramsey Auditorium in Wilson Hall.
Instruction begins at 7:30 p.m. and newcomers are always welcome.
Most dances are fully taught and walked through, and you do not need
to come with a partner. You can also see this group and try out the
dancing at the Fox Valley Folk Festival, on Monday, Sept. 5, at
Island Park in Geneva. Tuesday evening dancing will continue in the
Auditorium until Sept. 13, when it will return to Kuhn Barn. Info at
630-840-8194 or 630-584-0825 or folkdance@fnal.gov.

International Folk DancingInternational Folk Dancing
will meet Thursday, Sept. 1, in Ramsey Auditorium in Wilson Hall.
Dancing begins at 7:30 p.m. with teaching earlier in the evening and
request dancing later on. Newcomers are welcome and you do not need
to come with a partner. There will be international folk dancing
taught to live music at the Fox Valley Folk Festival on Sunday,
Sept. 4, at Island Park in Geneva. Thursday evening dancing dancing
will continue in the Auditorium next week, and return to Kuhn Barn
Sept. 15. Info at 630-584-0825 or 630-840-8194 or folkdance@fnal.gov.